Saudi strikes against Yemen rebels
27 March 2015 12:13 AM GMT
Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi, on the eve of a regional summit in Egypt, declared his full support for the strikes against the Huthis who he said had carried out a “coup” in Yemen.
The rebels and their allies had been closing in on main southern city Aden, where President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi has been holed up since fleeing the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa last month. Their advance raised Saudi fears that the Shiite minority rebels would seize control of the whole of its Sunni-majority neighbour and take it into the orbit of Shiite Iran.
Tehran condemned the Saudi-led intervention as “a dangerous step” that violated “international responsibilities and national sovereignty”. Huge explosions were heard in Sanaa as warplanes pounded an air base adjacent to the international airport and other locations, an AFP correspondent reported.
At least 14 civilians were killed when seven homes near the air base were reduced to rubble, a civil defence source said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that “ordinary Yemenis -- already hit hard by years of conflict -- are now enduring the effects of this escalation”. At daybreak hundreds of Sanaa families streamed out of the capital seeking the relative safety of the provinces.
The rebels and their allies had been closing in on main southern city Aden, where President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi has been holed up since fleeing the rebel-controlled capital Sanaa last month. Their advance raised Saudi fears that the Shiite minority rebels would seize control of the whole of its Sunni-majority neighbour and take it into the orbit of Shiite Iran.
Tehran condemned the Saudi-led intervention as “a dangerous step” that violated “international responsibilities and national sovereignty”. Huge explosions were heard in Sanaa as warplanes pounded an air base adjacent to the international airport and other locations, an AFP correspondent reported.
At least 14 civilians were killed when seven homes near the air base were reduced to rubble, a civil defence source said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross warned that “ordinary Yemenis -- already hit hard by years of conflict -- are now enduring the effects of this escalation”. At daybreak hundreds of Sanaa families streamed out of the capital seeking the relative safety of the provinces.
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